scholarly journals On the Magnitude of the Gods in Materialist Theology and Greek Art

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Guy Hedreen
Keyword(s):  
Visual Perception ◽  
Religious Belief ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Visual Expression ◽  
Classical Philosophy ◽  
Greek Art ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Material Bodies

Abstract In this paper, I address one characteristic of Classical Greek votive reliefs that has troubled scholars: the size of the gods. The reliefs depict mortal worshippers approaching gods and goddesses who are, almost invariably, larger in stature than the mortals. Scholars have generally explained the difference in scale to be art historical, rather than theological, in significance. Either the larger scale is a visual expression of the hierarchical superiority of the gods or the images of the gods represent over-life-size statues. In addition, it is widely accepted that votive reliefs are products of unsophisticated religious belief, ignorant of the conceptualization of an imperceptible, non-corporeal deity in Classical philosophy. In this paper, I accept the artistic proposition of votive reliefs at face value: in this genre, the gods are living, visible, material bodies, most often anthropomorphic in form and always larger in magnitude than mortals. I identify one significant parallel for this interpretation within Greek and Roman thought, namely, the conception of gods within the materialist theology developed by the late Classical writer Epicurus and, in part at least, by the fifth-century BC writer Demokritos. In the writings of the Epicureans and, it appears, the atomists, as in the votive reliefs, gods are human in form, very beautiful, self-sufficient, larger than humans in size and known by mortals through visual perception.

scholarly journals On Three Bronze Statuettes

1897 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 149-155
Author(s):  
C. A. Hutton
Keyword(s):  
Fifth Century ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Original Design ◽  
Mechanical Method ◽  
Greek Art ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Votive Offerings

The importance of the bronze statuette as a document for the reconstruction of early sculptural types and of the different phases through which Greek art passed is apt to be overlooked, but there is reason to suppose that the main lines of an antique conception are more likely to be preserved in it than on a marble adaptation made after a lapse of several centuries. Many of the most celebrated Greek statues were made for temples. A large proportion of the bronzes were votive offerings, and roughly reproduce a local cultus-statue, where any serious variation from the original design would not be tolerated; the difference consisting in the suppression of detail, not in the addition of it, as in a marble copy. Further, the mechanical method by which a bronze is reproduced effectually prevents the intrusion of the worker's personality, so that a second century cast from a fifth century mould is practically contemporary with the original design.

The Varieties of Religious Experience

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
William James
Keyword(s):  
Religious Experience ◽  
Religious Belief ◽  
Asking Questions ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Urgent Necessity

‘By their fruits ye shall know them, not by their roots.’ The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902) is William James’s classic survey of religious belief in its most personal, and often its most heterodox, aspects. Asking questions such as how we define evil to ourselves, the difference between a healthy and a divided mind, the value of saintly behaviour, and what animates and characterizes the mental landscape of sudden conversion, James’s masterpiece stands at a unique moment in the relationship between belief and culture. Faith in institutional religion and dogmatic theology was fading away, and the search for an authentic religion rooted in personality and subjectivity was a project conducted as an urgent necessity. With psychological insight, philosophical rigour, and a determination not to jump to the conclusion that in tracing religion’s mental causes we necessarily diminish its truth or value, in the Varieties James wrote a truly foundational text for modern belief. Matthew Bradley’s wide-ranging new edition examines the ideas that continue to fuel modern debates on atheism and faith.

Chinese Painting and Archaic Greek Art

1940 ◽  
Vol 9 (27) ◽  
pp. 129-136
Author(s):  
T. B. L. Webster
Keyword(s):  
Fourth Century ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Chinese Painting ◽  
The World ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Greek Art ◽  
Manchester School

‘If a man were a good painter, he could deceive children and fools by painting a carpenter and showing it from a long way off, because it would seem really to be a carpenter.’ Plato here (Republic, 598c) is undoubtedly describing realistic painting, perhaps not so photographically realistic as the paintings in Pompeii or the painting that we know to-day, but painting which aimed at producing a likeness and rendering the appearance of the original. Such pictures can be seen on the vases of the fourth century and of the late fifth century b.c., for instance the two women on a red-figured perfume vase in the Manchester School of Art, which was painted about the time of the dramatic date of the Republic (Pl. I). But if we go back rather over a hundred years to the black-figure vase reproduced by Mr. Austin in Greece and Rome, vol. vii, we are in a completely different world of flat figures in conventional poses, and if we go further back still to the Geometric vase (Fig. I) which forms the subject of Mr. Austin's article, we are yet further from the world of ‘likeness’. These early Greek painters cannot have wanted to produce likenesses; but what was their aim ?

Do you see what I see? The difference between dog and human visual perception may affect the outcome of experiments

2017 ◽  
Vol 140 ◽  
pp. 53-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Péter Pongrácz ◽  
Vera Ujvári ◽  
Tamás Faragó ◽  
Ádám Miklósi ◽  
András Péter
Keyword(s):  
Visual Perception ◽  
Human Visual Perception ◽  
The Difference

Conditions, Preferences and Race in Organ Donation

2006 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Niall Scott
Keyword(s):  
Organ Donation ◽  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Religious Belief ◽  
Race And Ethnicity ◽  
Ethnic Background ◽  
Tissue Type ◽  
Gift Giving ◽  
Problematic Issue ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Uk

AbstractActs of gift giving or donation carry the possibility of being inclusive as well as exclusive in terms of effects and agency. In this paper, I will discuss the problem that arises when an agent stipulates certain conditions on organ donation, such as race. In such a case, the general act of donation may be commendable, but the conditions stipulated as to the nature of the recipient may be subject to criticism. This is a problematic issue in the difference between stipulating obligations to humanity as a whole, and identifying particular communities according to features such as race, culture nationality and religious belief. Questions such as whether or not a donor can place restrictions on the nature of the recipient or whether the hospital as an institution should accept a donation with conditions attached present challenges to current legislation in the UK on conditional donation. This is further complicated where there is a greater need for organs in particular ethnic groups, and that although race and ethnicity do not pose barriers to transplant success, tissue type matches are better suited to those of similar ethnic background. I will address whether such limits of a person or group's ability to be altruistic is morally acceptable and whether conditions put on gift giving can be legitimately rejected through law.

scholarly journals Hierarchia wschodnich biskupów w historiografii kościelnej V wieku

Vox Patrum ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 58 ◽  
pp. 181-199
Author(s):  
Sławomir Bralewski
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Saint Peter ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Eusebius Of Caesarea ◽  
The Church ◽  
Marked Tendency ◽  
The Way ◽  
Church Historians

Francis Dvornik has expressed the view that, in the Eastern part of the Empire, the principle of accommodation dominated over the principle of the apostolic ori­gin. The situation, he maintained, resulted from the fact that the aforementioned area included excessively numerous sees which were either established by one of the Apostles or were considered to be somehow connected with their activities. Does the conclusion of the Czech researcher find any justification in the way the precedence of bishoprics is depicted in the Greek ecclesiastical historiography of the fifth century? The present article is to give an answer to the question. The analysis of the ecclesiastical historiography in question demonstrates that Eusebius of Caesarea, who wrote in the IV th century, while setting a hierarchy of bishops was guided first and foremost by the principle of accommodation. The church historians, however, who compiled their works a mere century later put a decisively lesser stress on Eusebius’ predilection in that matter. Although the narrative of Philostorgius, since fragmentary, is hard to interpret, Socrates’ atti­tude displays a marked tendency of favoring the importance of the apostolic ori­gin, which was most probably taken over from Rufinus of Aquileia. Sozomen tended to tell the difference between the official hierarchy of bishops, which was based on the principle of accommodation, and the structure of bishoprics connec­ted with the Apostles. Theodoretus, in turn, tended to connect both the principles, however, preferring the idea of the Church originated by saint Peter, accordingly of the ecclesiastic structure based on the principle of the apostolic origin. As a consequence, and contrary to F. Dvornik’s thesis, it should be concluded that (at least) the authors of the Ecclesiastic Histories of the fifth century were in favor of the principle of the apostolic origin and maintained it was over the prin­ciple of accommodation.

Athenian Synoikism of the Fifth Century B.C., or Two Stories of Theseus

1999 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 168-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valerij Goušchin
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Physical Aspect ◽  
Naval Power ◽  
Delian League ◽  
The Difference ◽  
First Time ◽  
The City ◽  
The Town ◽  
Greek World

On the eve of the Peloponnesian War Athens was a great urban agglomeration. It was almost invulnerable to an enemy. So in 431 B.C. the Athenians began to migrate from the countryside into the city on the advice of Pericles (Thuc. 2.14–16). This recalled to Thucydides the time of Theseus (Thuc. 2.15). S. Hornblower regards this migration as the long-postponed physical synoikism, or synoikism in its physical aspect. He insists on the difference between political and physical synoikism, the former being the political unification of the state and the latter mainly the migration into the city. But the Athenians did not migrate into the city for the first time in 431. At the time of Xerxes' invasion the inhabitants of Attica were to be moved into the city before being evacuated to Salamis and elsewhere, and the invasion made their vulnerability clear to the Athenians. They suffered two evacuations, the devastation of Attica and the substantial destruction of Athens. Through driving back the Persians Athens became the leader of the Delian League and acquired great naval power. The change of Athens' position in the Greek world and the damage caused by the Persians necessitated a major reconstruction of the town. The Athenians began with the town and harbour. They built the walls of the city and of the Piraeus first of all. Beforelong the Piraeus had been built on a large scale. In these years the Athenians remembered Theseus again, and he now gained honour and esteem among all the Athenians.

Heracles and the Apples of the Hesperides: A New Type

1905 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 157-162
Author(s):  
K. A. McDowall
Keyword(s):  
Fourth Century ◽  
Archaic Period ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Ancient World ◽  
New Type ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Greek Art

Of all types of Heracles in Greek art, that with the apples of the Hesperides is perhaps the most familiar. Yet in the archaic period it scarcely occurs, and even in the fifth century, though the scene is often represented among the Labours, when accessory figures are consequently present, there are few examples of the hero holding the apples in free sculpture. With the fourth century, however, the subject becomes common, for it is to Lysippus and his followers that we owe the type of the Wearied Heracles holding the apples, which has given rise to the popular conception. That this became the stock representation to the ancient world as to the modern we learn from Suidas καὶ γράφουσι δορὰν λέοντος φοροῦντα, καὶ ῥόπαλον φέροντα, καί γε μῆλα κρατοῦντα. The earliest representation of the type, best known from the Heracles Farnese, appears to be on a tetradrachm of Alexander, and there can be little doubt that its origin is due to Lysippus. The replica in the Pitti bears the inscription ΛΥΣΙΠΠΟΥ ΕΡΓΟΝ.

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